After spending five weeks in Bolivia this summer, I wasconvinced that the new paths out of this destructive,hateful morass we call neo-liberalism would come fromthose most marginalized by its greed and violence.Little did I imagine that one of the strongest signs ofthis direction would come from the belly of the beastitself.

Ten thousand people, overwhelmingly poor and workingclass, the majority people of colour, at least halfwomen, and a massive number of youth gathered inAtlanta, Ga. at the end of June for the U.S. SocialForum (USSF) signaling what could be the birth of themost powerful social movement the U.S. has ever seen.

"Never in my wildest imagination, did I think I wouldever see something like this in the United States,"Carlos Torres, a Chilean refugee now living in Canada,told me halfway through the forum. The sentiment wasrepeated again and again by Latin American visitors whowere there as emissaries from the World Social Forum(WSF). It was radical, it was militant, it wasfeminist, it was anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist,it was queer, it was loud and lively and it wasbrimming with love, kindness and a deep sense ofsolidarity.

The slogan of the USSF was "Another world is possible,another U.S. is necessary." It was interpreted both asanother U.S. and another "us," meaning the left has toreinvent itself.

And it was a major step forward for the World SocialForum movement. The idea of a U.S. social forum camefrom a couple of people who went to the 2001 WSF inBrazil and then brought a few more with them in 2002.They formed a group called Grassroots Global Justiceand began the process of organizing a U.S. socialforum, firmly in the WSF spirit.

One of them, Fred Azcarate, then with Jobs withJustice, now with the AFL-CIO, explained to the openingplenary that "it took this long because we wanted to doit right by building the necessary relationships amongthe grassroots organizations and ensuring the rightoutcomes."

And the right outcomes were to create the conditions tounite the disparate grassroots people's movementsaround the U.S. across race, age, sector and region.

They got the idea from the WSF but they took it beyondwhere anyone else has managed to go, except perhaps inMumbai. In Nairobi, poor people demanded a significantplace in the WSF planning process and in Atlanta, theyhad one. The national planning committee representedwhat they call national and regional "base-building"groups, whose base is mostly poor and working classpeople. It seemed to this observer that the forumshifted the balance of power on the American left tothe poor and oppressed from the middle class. Time willtell what impact this will have.

Every plenary focused on building alliances among themyriad of grassroots movement across the United States.Most emphasis was on a "black-brown" alliance to combatthe racism that divides African Americans from theirLatino and immigrant brothers and sisters. But therewas also a lot of focus on student/labour alliances andenvironmental issues were completely linked to socialjustice issues. Support for gays, lesbians andtransgendered people who have been major targets of theBush administration seemed universal.

The forum ended in a People's Movements Assembly, wherevarious regional and issue caucuses presented theirresolutions. Several new national networks were formedand the bonds of solidarity were deeply forged amongthose who are usually divided. People left with thecommitment to organize social forums in their regions,cities and neighbourhoods. Over the course of the week,the social forum became a synonym for creating amovement of movements everywhere.

"People are asking me when Atlanta has ever seensomething like this," Jerome Scott of Project South andveteran Atlanta activist speaking of the opening march."I've been reflecting on that and my answer is Atlantahas never seen anything like this. The Civil Rightsmovement was mostly African American and last year'sMay 1st (immigration rights) demo was mostly Latinosbut this march was the most multi-national action Ihave ever seen. It was beautiful."

Almost every one of the 900 workshops over four dayswas filled to the brim with activists who were sharingstrategies in everything from food security tocommunity/labour alliances to a new taking back ourcities movement against gentrification. The plenaryspeakers were majority women, people of colour, andyoung people. There was not a single left-wing staramong them. In a culture obsessed with celebrity, theorganizing committee decided they didn't need any, eventhe good ones.

None of the big NGOs in the United States were on theplanning committee. The idea that foundation-funded,majority white, centrist and Washington dominated NGOsand think tanks have hijacked the left was presentthroughout the forum. These groups were welcome toparticipate, but not in a leadership capacity.

Another extraordinary feature of the forum was the roleof indigenous people who led the opening march andparticipated on several panels as well as had their ownplenary.

Much of the vision came from them. After talking aboutthe melting of the glaciers, Faith Gemmill from theREDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction onIndigenous Land) in Alaska said, "Our people have aprophesy that there will come a time in the history ofhumanity when people are in danger of destroyingourselves. When that time comes, a voice will arisefrom the North to warn us. That time is now. I was senthere to give you part of our burden to speak up nowagainst the greed."

And Tom Goldtooth who represents the IndigenousEnvironmental Network on the national planningcommittee said, "We must talk from the heart and shakehands with one another. A prayer has taken place thatthis spirit is going to grow. No matter who we are wemust demand not reform of a broken system buttransformation. We need to organize from thegrassroots."

And many did speak from the heart.

The plenary on Katrina was stunning to me. While Icertainly followed the immediate aftermath, I had noidea of the continuing efforts to whitewash NewOrleans. Dr. Beverley Wright speaking from the floorsaid, "Our parents and our grandparents fought to buy ahouse to pass on to their family and they are trying totake that away from us when they talk about turning theplace we lived in East New Orleans into a green space.They're not talking about turning the place rich whitefolks live into green space."

Another community leader said, "Katrina is both areality and a symbol. If you work in justice, if youwork in health care, if your work in housing, you arein Katrina."

One of the most powerful speeches was from JavierGallardo from the New Orleans Workers Center. A guestworker from Peru, he explained that when AfricanAmericans were displaced, hundreds of workers like himhad been brought in from Latin America for Gulf Coastreconstruction and their employers names are on theirpassports.

Their ability to stay in the U.S. is dependent on theemployer. Gallardo said that there is now a practicethat when the employer is finished with the workers, hesells them to another employer for $2,000 each. "Whatis that?," he asked.

"We call it modern day slavery. They want to divide usbut the old slaves and the new slaves can join togetherand together we can defeat them," he continued tothunderous applause. The old slaves/new slaves metaphorwove its way through the rest of the forum in thepowerful idea of a black-brown alliance, that veteranactivists said would transform left-wing politics inthe United States and especially in the South where thevast majority of the working class is now black andbrown.

Another impressive feature of the forum was thehandling of conflict. When the Palestinian contingentobjected that they were the only group not permitted tospeak for themselves in the anti-war plenary, theorganizers read their letter of protest to the nextplenary. When the report of the indigenous caucus wasstopped at the end of their allotted time by themoderator of the People's Movement Assembly by removingtheir microphone, they took grave offense and feltsilenced.

Within 10 minutes, most of the indigenous people in theroom were on the stage with the consent of theorganizers. What could have been an explosive divisivemoment with a lot of anger and hurt was handled withincredible skill by both permitting the protest andmaking sure it was interpreted in a way that createdunity rather than division. I had the feeling that anew culture of solidarity was being born, one we triedfor in the feminist movement but never quiteaccomplished.

Of course there were weaknesses in the forum. Whilestrongly rooted in the traditions of the civil rightsmovement by the symbolic location in Atlanta and thepresence of veteran civil rights activists, there wasless discussion of working class or even feministhistory.

Yet the impact of those movements were strongly felt inthe powerful female leadership present everywhere andthe strong emphasis on workers' issues and organizing.None of the big environmental groups was present. Whilethe issue of the war and U.S. imperialism had pride ofplace, the mainstream anti-war movement had littlepresence. The forum organizers bent the stick quite fartowards poor, working class, indigenous, queer andpeople of colour groups and perhaps this was necessaryto create the kind of movement really capable of makingchange in the United States.

In her famous speech at the 2002 World Social Forum inBrazil, Arundhati Roy famously said, "Remember this: Webe many and they be few. They need us more than we needthem. Another world is not only possible, she is on herway. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

It wasn't a quiet day in Atlanta but I could hear hershouting there, "What do we want? Justice. How will weget it? People Power."

Judy Rebick holds the Sam Gindin Chair in SocialJustice and Democracy at Ryerson University in Toronto.She is a founder and former publisher of rabble.ca. Hermost recent book is Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of aFeminist Revolution.